Tallow and Fermoy surveyed as NBP rollout continues

Surveying for the National Broadband Plan continues across the country with National Broadband Ireland (NBI) crews making substantial progress, with surveying now complete in Tallow and Fermoy.

NBI, the company rolling out the new high-speed fibre broadband network under the Government’s National Broadband Plan (NBP), announced on Tuesday that surveying works in Waterford are well underway.

Initial works, such as surveying, pave the way for the next stage of deploying fibre on poles/ducts and includes the erection of poles, unblocking of ducts, and the insertion of sub duct into existing ducts, for the fibre to be installed.

NBI Chief Executive Peter Hendrick, said that ‘ momentum has been steadily building’ in the progression of the National Broadband Plan rollout.

“Our teams have been, and continue to do so, to work on the rollout plan and substantial progress has been made from surveying, design, build to connection works,” he said.

15,334 premises across Waterford have been identified as being in the Intervention Area, including homes, farms, commercial businesses and schools, which equates to 24% of all premises in the county. In Cork, 80,640, or 29% of premises in the county, are in the Intervention Area.

Under the National Broadband Plan, Waterford will see an investment of €59M in the new high-speed fibre network, while Cork will benefit from a €314M investment. When operational, this will enable e-learning, remote monitoring of livestock or equipment, e-health initiatives, better energy efficiency in the home, and will facilitate increased levels of remote working.

“As an increasing number of homes and businesses are being connected, we are confident that the rollout will continue to gather pace as we look to connect thousands more homes and businesses. We are acutely aware that people want access to highspeed broadband and our goal is to deliver that as quickly as possible,” Mr Hendrick added.

News of the progress in North Cork was welcomed by Cork East TD James O’Connor who said it is ‘ great news’ that the process to get high-speed connectivity to the area is underway.

“There are many houses and businesses in the area badly in need of high-speed broadband, especially when remote working is becoming part of so many people’s lives. One of my priorities since becoming a TD is that high-speed broadband is delivered to the constituency of Cork East. I am glad to say this is starting to become a reality.

“As part of the Transport and Communications committee, I met with Peter Hendrick, CEO of National Broadband Ireland and his staff last week in Dáil Éireann to share my concerns regarding the speed of the works across the constituency of in the North Cork region and again with local people working with NBI on the ground in the past few weeks. I am delighted that this is being dealt with now and in the coming months, Fermoy and the surrounding area is going to be plugged into top-quality high-speed fibre broadband,” Deputy O’Connor said.

In advance of the Fibre-to-the-Home rollout, the National Broadband Plan provides for the delivery of Broadband Connection Points (BCPs) that offer both internal and external broadband access.

In Waterford, Broadband Connection points are located at Ballysaggart Community Centre, Mount Melleray Community Hall, Knockanore Community Centre and Modeligo Community Hall. While such broadband connection points in Cork include locally in Castlelyons Community Centre, Ballindangan Community Centre and T.O. Park.

Primary schools in the Intervention Area are also being connected for educational access as part of the NBP.

NBI contractors have been on the ground across the country for 22 months and over 293,809 premises nationwide have been surveyed to date.

This involves physically walking the routes and documenting images, notes and measurements of the poles, cables and underground ducts in each area.

These vital survey works enable ‘Fibreto-the-Home’ network designs to be completed for each of the 554,000 plus premises in the Intervention Area, as identified by the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communication (DECC).

OFFICIAL I.D.

Members of the public are advised that all NBI contractors will also carry official ID cards and essential worker letters, and have received training on adhering to all Covid19 guidelines. They will have vehicles, PPE and signage with both their own and NBI logos.